Mera Sahara: Site Visit & Funding

ProposalDecember 2, 2013

Project Steward: Harika ReddyCo-Steward: Saiteja Chava

Project Description Location: Nithari, Sector 31,

Noida, U.P, India

Area (urban/rural): Urban

Primary Focus: - Poor children of Nithari Village

Project Type: Primary School

Amount Requested (US$): $15,800 for next 12 months

# of Beneficiaries: About 160 children

About 40-50 children that come occasionally for skills training

Project Goals Enable regular and easier transition to

regular schools

Provide a safe place for children while parents are away at work

Community involvement

- Most teachers and caretakers are from the community

- Many adults attend evening adult education classes in the same premises

Serves 160 underprivileged children

Monthly parent teacher meetings

Cutting & Tailoring, Rug making training

Several young girls started their own tailoring units and earn a living

Computer and origami classes

Also helped many young girls from child marriage and child labor

Current Status

2013 updates Independence day celebrations

2013 updates: Educating the Community

Police women were invited to interact with local women about domestic violence, rape and trafficking, and the role police play in preventing those crimes.

Adult education has given mothers to share their concerns while teaching them reading and writing. Increased awareness about child health, domestic violence, and malnutrition.

JWP interacts with parents and deals with domestic problems like health, abuse and economic conditions

2013 Updates Volunteers from TCS taught older children

how to use computers during May and June.

Skills development in arts, origami, public speaking and computer classes with classes 2 and 3.

Tailoring classes are popular among women and housewives.

Impact Center expanded allowing more children to

attend school

Children participation and eagerness to attend school has increased dramatically

Community involvement is strong and growing

Asha contribution seems to have played an important role

Asha’s 6 month contributionFund Allocation Amount

RequestedAmount Approved by Asha: : Sept 2012 – Feb 2013

Amount Used: Sept 2012 – Feb 2013

Amount used for March 2013 – August 2013

Rent & Electricity 90,000 90,000 96,000 96,000

Teachers (5 @ Rs. 4000 p.m.)

1,20,000 1,20,000 1,20,000 1,44,000 (6 @Rs. 4000 pm.)

Skill Teacher (@ Rs. 5000 p.m.)

30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000

Craft & Tailoring Teacher (@ Rs. 4000 p.m.)

Craft: 24,000 24,000 24,000 Craft: 30,000

Tailoring: 24,000

Tailoring: 30,000

Coordinator (@5500 p.m.) 33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000

Snacks, Fruits, Water 78,000 66,500 65,240 78,000

Stationary 9,570

Recreational Activities 30,00 36,500 7,050 48,000

Grand Total 4,00,000 (~$7500)

4,14,860 4,89,000 Rs = 8998.87 USD

Funds sent by Asha ($7500)

3,87,000

Excess expenditure paid by J.W.P.

27,860

Funding ProposalSeptember 2013– August 2014

Fund Allocation Amount

Rent & Electricity 2,16,000

Teachers (6 @ Rs. 4500 p.m.) 3,24,000

Skill Teacher (1@ Rs. 6000 p.m.) 72,000

Craft Teacher (1@ Rs. 4000 p.m.) 48,000

Tailoring Teacher (1@ Rs. 6000 p.m.) 72,000

Coordinator (1@6000 p.m.) 72,000

Snacks, Fruits, Water, and Stationary 85,000

Recreational Activities 75,000

Grand Total 9,64,000 Rs = 15,743 USD

Class and Age break down

Grade A&B: 3-4 years

Grade 1: 6-8 years

Grade 2: 7-9 years

Grade 3: 8-12 years

Grade 4: 9-14 years (Started this season)

These children are taught regular UP board school syllabus so as to get ready to enter mainly govt. school along with basic computer skills

The school drop outs,  all of them being girls, learn tailoring and durry making.

age 1- 3--------- 34age 3-4--------- 28age 4--6-------- 30age 6-8-------- 24age 9-10------- 17age10-11------ 12age 11-12---- 8age 12- 14--- 7

Creche Creche: 1-3 yr old, sometimes 7-11 month old

Both parents are employed. Babysitting for younger kids while older siblings learn.

Helps older children stay in school

Provides nutrition and care to 7-11 month old.

Learning activities include learning vegetables/fruits, and getting used to schooling system, reciting rhymes, familiarizing with the alphabet, etc

8 AM -12 PM

Crèche helper paid by CBN Foundation and Intercontinental Technocrats Pvt. Ltd.

Teachers Skills teacher: Ph. D. Teachers computer skills, works

2days/week. 2 hours/day, teaches children from ages 6-14

Crafts teacher teaches durry making for the ages of 14-18 school drop-outs and some young mothers

Tailoring teacher: Teach school drop-outs (all girls), and young mothers from ages 14-22.

2 teachers completed 12 grade. 3 teachers are graduates (BA or BSc). 2 teachers are post graduates (MA or MSc)

All teachers work 8am-1pm daily. (Except computer)

Why are academic teachers paid less than skill teachers?

Try to match the honorarium according to what is paid in local and unaided private schools around Nithari; cannot follow the salary structure of the recognized Municipal or Private Schools

All of the academic teachers are from the community and do not have to pay for their travel.

Four teachers joined before they had completed their Bachelor of Arts degree and were enabled to complete their university degree while teaching

We do recognize the fact that the academic teachers provide instruction to all children and work for 5 and a half hours a day and are of greater importance to child education. However, the Computer teacher also provides specialized training to all students in batches. She is more qualified as she has a Doctorate degree. She is not from the local community as we could not find a computer teacher from Nithari and she has to  therefore travel to the Centre from quite a distance. The Tailoring teacher,  (qualified to do so), attends to school dropout girls and mothers daily from 11 am to 4 pm. We had to match her request for her demand of Rs. 6000/- per month as she has to travel to Nithari from a distance because she is not a local person of the community. 

School and its times Center runs throughout the year except 20 days in

summer and a week in winter. Creche runs all year round.

Sometimes closed during rainy season due to water clogging.

Present on a daily basis:

Ms. Vimla Pant- headmistress and accounts person

Ms. Padmini Kumar – Coordinator and Counselor

Ms. Manisha Sharma, Adult Education teacher

Other Fundings CBN Foundation India -Rs. 21,400/- per

month which pay for salary of the headmistress and accounts, teaching material and conveyance and part of nutrition and medical needs.

Intercontinental Technocrats Pvt. Ltd -Rs. 50,000/- per month to take care of part of the Rent for the Centre, Stationary & Documentation, Salaries of the Crèche in charge, Ayah, Cleaner, General Knowledge teacher, Adult Education teacher, Organizational Conveyance, Monitoring & Administration, Audit and Miscellaneous expenses

Transitions and Drop outs

(Show the excel sheet)

Transition Dropout

2009-2010 13 (8%) 3 (2%)

2010-2011 15 (10%) 15 (9%)

2011-2012 11 (7%) 15 (8%)

2012-2013 11 (6%) 9 (5%)

Transitions Some that transitioned to mainstream schools

who are still living in Nithari continue to come to Centre for information and extra studies

Schools that students joined:

Sarvhitkari Siksha Kendra, Noida 

Govt. school, Noida 

Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Noida

Reasons for Drop outs

 The major reason for drop out is migration by parents in search of daily wages and temporary jobs.

There are seasonal, yearly contract workers like painters, construction workers and carpenters, rickshaw pullers and vegetable/fish/meat vendors

It’s hard to keep track of students who have transitioned or moved because these are migrant’s children

Dropouts after joining mainstream:

15 % have continued their studies in mainstream schools

Possible to keep track of children (about 50-60 who have gone to mainstream schools in last 5 years) for only a certain period since they are children of migrant labor

Background of Parents

These parents work as domestic helps, rickshaw pullers, tea vendors on the street, fish and vegetable sellers.

They are very poor living in thatched huts and some one room rented accommodations.

Almost all families belong to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe and Minority communities.

Why Mera Sahara? Mera Sahara is specially serving the

children of migrant labour which moves from one area to another in search of jobs and their children are the most neglected population of society.

Mera Sahara helps the parents understand the necessity of their children being educated

Works with parents to keep children in school and from being exploited as child labours.

Why Mera Sahara? The children are being trained to meet the challenges when

they transition to mainstream and assimilate with other children

The children are enabled to compete and participate in programs and activities in mainstream schools.

This enables them to get over their social complexes and stand with their heads held high as equals

Facilities like free schooling, two fresh meals, expenditure for educational materials and aids, (sometimes provided with clothes, sweaters, shoes, etc.) are all provided to them

Working mothers are not privileged enough to leave their young children in a paid creche's ( there are no aanganvadis in this area and the one in the nearby govt. school is dysfunctional)

Site VisitNovember 28, 2013

Their center starts at 8 and goes on until 4pm. 

The adult education program runs in the afternoon and the school for children as well as creche runs in the morning.

There are 5 teachers who are supported by Asha and 1 Creche teacher who is supported from other funds.

TCS has donated computers and TCS people come every week to teach computers and other activities. 

not limited to Mera Sahara children as others in that village also can attend these events.

Site VisitNovember 28, 2013

Of the teachers: 2 teach pre-primary (there are two sections), 1 each teach class 1-3/4. 

This year, the class 3 students refused to leave the program so they have started class 4 but currently the children of class 3 and 4 are clubbed together. This is not an ideal situation and they are thinking of expanding their program but it depends upon the availability of funds.

Site VisitNovember 28, 2013

1 computer teacher who is categorized as skill teacher.

When I visited today she was taking written test for the class 3 and 4 students. It just consisted of writing part names of the computer in English and Hindi. 

I visited the classes,  all the teachers were present and the children seem enthusiastic about learning. On roll, there are 160 children but all of them do not attend.

The major problem is that the majority are migrants. So where ever they get a job, they will go.  And also many will have small landholdings in their village. So during the sowing season, they will go back to the village with their family. When the child comes back, he/she will be a blank slate and the learning process has to start again (remember their parents are illiterate and therefore, learning happens only during school hours). This situation is universal across the country and this problem is difficult to solve.

In fact,  schools like Mera Sahara are needed for these children. The formal schools (private as well as govt) will not allow children to go on extended leave or to join mid-session. So schools like Mera Sahara work with this realities and will not only allow them to go to their village but also allow them to join mid-session. That flexibility helps the children. 

Site VisitNovember 28, 2013

Once the child reaches class 3, they are encouraged to join mainstream school. However, it depends entirely upon the parents.

So the organization monitors children who are still living in the village. But many children have enrolled in schools in Delhi region and the

parents have moved so the organization cannot monitor them. The major reason for dropout is economic and marriage. Child

marriages are common and very often the parent goes to the village, gets them married and comes back. However, they now noticed that marriages are delayed a little bit so that the child starts earning and contributes to the budget of the house. These children, especially girls, are employed as domestic workers.  

Mera Sahara is moving to a new location within the village as the current place has become too noisy and dirty. When I went today the drains were overflowing because the sanitation workers were on strike.